the STNGIN'G O/fiBlRDS. 1 £5 
and expatiated upon, by feveral writers, parti* 
cuhrly Pliny and Strada. 
As I mu ft own, however, that I cannot affix 
a nv precile ideas to either of thefe celebrated 
defcriptions, and as I once kept a very fine bird 
of this fort for three years, with, very particular 
attention to its long, I (hall endeavour to do it 
the bed juftice T am capable of.. 
In the first place, its tons is infinitely more 
mellow than that of any other bird, though, at 
the fame time, by a proper exertion cf its mufx-- 
cal powers, it can be exceffively brilliant. 
When this bird fang its Jong round , in its 
whole compafs, I have obferved fixteen differ- 
ent beginnings and doles, at the fame tune 
that the intermediate notes-were commonly va- 
ried in their fuccefiion with fuch judgment as 
to produce a mofc pleafing variety. 
The bird which approaches neared to the ex- 
cellence- of the Nightingale in this refpecf is the 
Sky-Lark •, but then the tone is infinitely infe- 
rior in point of meilownels : mod other hnging 
birds have not above four or five changes. 
The next point of fuperiority in a Nightin- 
gale is its continuance of long, without a paufe, 
which I have obierved fomet.unes nor to be lets 
than twen.ty feconds. Whenever reipiration, 
however, became necedary, it was taken with 
as much judgment as by an opera finger. 
